The Name Game
by Tolkienologist
Summary: Post SoF Iggy inspires a conversation with the flock about how they got their names. Also on MR forum.
1. Max

**The Name Game**

_Post SoF- Iggy inspires a conversation with the flock about how they got their names. Also on the MR forum- username is Gefiedert_

"Hey Max," Iggy sat down near me as the rest of the flock readied themselves to turn in. I looked up at him. "I've been thinking… you know, about the Griffiths."

My heart sank. "Ig, are you sure you want to talk about your…" I couldn't bring myself to say _parents_, so I settled with "…about them?" I was slightly apprehensive about where this story was going, as Mr. and Mrs. Griffiths were far from my ideal image of parents.

"No, no, it's not exactly about _them_, it's more about… what they called me." Confused, I said nothing; I just stared intently into Iggy's face.

_Just listen to what he has to say, Max._

_Thank you, Captain Obvious, _I thought, annoyed at the Voice always stating the obvious.

"They called you James, right?" I asked softly. "I never thought that name suited you…"

Iggy gazed sightlessly past me. "I didn't think so either. Every time they called me James, I almost shouted IGGY! And all that time, it made me think of when we, the flock that is, all thought of our names… what I think of as our true real names."

I smiled. This brought back memories. "Yes Iggy, I do."

"_She's the best you'll ever get!" a proud Jeb Batchelder had boasted to a few other whitecoats. I had felt my heart swell with pride- I was only two, yet Jeb was already showing me off. "She's the maximum, I tell you!"_

"_That's my name," I whispered to the dark-haired boy next to me. "Maximum."_

_He looked skeptical, or as skeptical as one could look while crouching in a dog crate. "Maximum? What type of a name is that?"_

"_Well, that's my name, and that's who I am." Sticking out my chin defiantly, I turned to the other boy with us. "Isn't that right?" He shrugged, his blue eyes watching the whitecoats fearfully._

"_Well, I think that's a ridiculous name. I think you should shorten it to like… say… hmm…"_

"_Max!" the youngest boy cried out. His blue eyes looked proud of himself for thinking of the name by himself._

_The dark-haired boy nodded curtly. We couldn't celebrate picking a name for me, for at that moment the whitecoats had stopped talking and were approaching our crates._

"_These are the human-avian experiments, correct?" one bald whitecoat asked his companion._

"_Yes," said the snide voice of the other man. "Are we ready for those tests, then?"_

_The first whitecoat and two others had begun to unlock our crates when all of the sudden Bald-o had let out an earsplitting shriek, causing a chill to run down our spines…_

"What? When was this?"

I jumped in the middle of my story, looking around. The rest of the flock had stopped what they were doing to listen to my tale. Nudge, who had blurted out, looked shocked.

"It was before you guys were born," Fang said softly. "I remember… especially what happened next." He let out a quite chuckle. "Do continue, Max. It will be good to hear from your point of view."

I shot him a smile, which he didn't return, and continued my tale…

**TBC**


	2. Fang and Iggy

_The whitecoat, a.k.a. Bald-o, was screaming in agony._

"_What did you do to him?" I cried, gazing at the dark-haired boy to my right. _

"_I bit him." He grinned evilly. Bald-o backed away from his cage, glancing nervously at his colleagues. _

"_Are you a vampire?" the youngest boy asked, interestedly. He shook his head. "Okay then… do you even have fangs?"_

"_Fangs!" I said as the dark-haired boy's cage was finally unlocked and we were being herded into another yucky-smelling room. "That would be a really, _really _neat name!"_

"_Fangs? I like plain Fang better." The newly-christened Fang said. I grinned._

_Bald-o opened the door to the maze as we set off running._

"You bit a whitecoat?" Gazzy asked Fang, incredulously. Fang half-smiled.

"Oh yeah!" Iggy had walked over and joined them. "I remember that maze… we ran that one especially well."

"_Impressive, Jeb. Very impressive."_

_They had returned to their crates after each running their own maze. The whitecoats left the room._

_Fang looked at the other boy. "We need to get you a name, too, you know. I wonder what would suit you."_

_He looked thoughtful. "Well, I think I want a real name. Not like Maximum or Fang."_

_I remember something Jeb had told me weeks previously- all names had meaning. This gave me an idea. "What sort of things do you like?"_

"_Fire," the boy said with a grin. _

_Fang looked up from the side of his crate. "Was it you that blew up that computer a while ago?"_

"_Yeah," the boy laughed. "That was me."_

"Wait…" Gazzy interrupted. "How'd you blow up a computer?"

"Later," I said.

"_Hmm…" I tried to remember all the names I'd heard in my life, which, regrettably, was a small number. I remember one of the whitecoats had said something about a computer being ignited. I didn't know what that meant, but since nothing else had happened to a computer lately, I assumed that meant 'set on fire'._

"_Ignatius!" I called. Both boys looked at me, uncomprehendingly. "It sounds like 'ignite', which I heard one of the whitecoats say about the computer you set on fire?"_

"_Ig… Ig what?" Fang laughed. "That's a weird name."_

_I gave him a look. "And Fang isn't?"_

_The other boy looked pleased. "I know!" he cried. "Iggy! That sounds like the name, but isn't hard to say!"_

_Fang glanced at Iggy. "That'll work." _

**TBC**


	3. Exploding Computers, Nudge, and Ari

**Exploding Computers, Nudge, and Ari**

"So how'd you blow up the computer?" the Gasman was persistent.

"Funny story, that." Iggy said. One of the whitecoats had stupidly left out matches after testing Iggy's ability to deal with heat (which ended quickly due to Iggy's yells) and had left the room. Iggy had taken them and, copying the whitecoat, rubbed its tip… against the computer. The whole thing was up in flames before the whitecoat could come running back and practically throw Iggy into his crate.

"But what about me?" Nudge wheedled. "How'd I get my name? I don't remember."

"Well, that happened about a year after the exploding computer incident…"

_It had been a while since the whitecoats had done anything OVERLY horrible to us, and for that we were thankful. But it also was a little nerve-wracking… why were they doing this?_

_Our questions were answered a few days post. The School had acquired another girl… she was given wings, too!_

"_What should we call her?" Fang asked._

"_You make her sound like a pet," Iggy giggled. Not that we'd ever had a pet before, or anything. It was still funny though._

_The new girl was very open with us. She would always poke us to get our attention, and then wave her hands or point at something to communicate._

_One day she was doing just the same thing, but Iggy, who she was "speaking" with, was half-asleep. She nudged him insistently. _

_Groggy, Iggy tried to say 'No nudging!' but it came out as "No, nudge!"_

"_Nudge?" I asked. "Why'd you name her that?"_

"_What?" Iggy looked confused. "I didn't name her. I wanted her to stop nudging me!"_

"_She does do that a lot," Fang piped in. He had a point._

"_Maybe we _should_ call her Nudge." I said, glancing at her._

"_Cause she'll **love **us for giving her a name like that." Fang rolled his eyes._

_I glared at him._

"But I like my name!" Nudge grinned happily. "I didn't know _that's_ why I was named Nudge. Have you ever noticed that my name rhymes with fudge? We should get fudge. I really like fudge, especially the chocolate type…" She stopped at the looks on our faces.

"Let's see, we've done me, Fang, Iggy, and Nudge. Gazzy's next…" I faltered. "Do I really need to explain this one?" Iggy and the Gasman cracked up, and even Fang grinned slightly. I sighed. _Boys…_

"I'll explain." Iggy offered. I nodded. "But first, I have another story… one I think you guys won't know, as only me, Fang, and Max were discussing it. Gazzy had just been born, but he hadn't joined us and Nudge yet."

_Four whole years later, and Nudge could talk… joy. She would never shut up! I constantly wished the whitecoats had tried to "improve" my hearing, rather than my sight!_

_I heard the seven-year-old Fang walked over to me. "Hey," he said. "Anything wrong?"_

_I couldn't come up with a lie. "Yes, actually. I heard Jeb talking about someone. He said something about 'not experimenting'…" _

_Fang was silent for a moment. "Max and I heard that too. The thing is, Jeb has a son."_

_I couldn't help it. I snorted. "Jeb. He has a son? I didn't know that… what's his name? It can't be anything as crazy as ours, no doubt."_

"_Actually… his name is Ari. I think it means lion."_

_Max had joined in the conversation. "What make you think that?" she asked, curious._

_I heard Fang sigh. "I heard Jeb SAY it meant lion. But I don't thin that's why he was named that." He looked thoughtful. "You know how Jeb, well… practically gushes over us?" Max and I nodded in unison. (Well, at least I did. I don't know about Max.) "I think that because we have wings, we'll be able to fly someday!"_

_Max laughed. "How long did it take you to figure that one out? Wait…"_

"_What?" Fang and I chorused together. _

"_Air!" Max triumphantly called out in a sing-song voice. "If you change the last two letters of air, you get Ari!"_

"_That's what I thought!" Fang muttered indignantly._

"_Imagine that," I giggled. (Yes, giggled. Does anyone have a problem with that?) "You, actually thinking. That's a good one!"_

_Fang groaned and I could imagine him rolling his eyes. I grinned. _

**TBC**


	4. Gazzy

**Very short chapter, I'm too lazy to do any more.**

"Creepy!" Nudge burst out. "Ari was named who he was because of _us?_"

Iggy made some noise of affirmation, and Fang said something about continuing the story.

He obliged.

_Yet another bird experiment had joined us. He was a grand total of one year old, and yet, he still had the power to-_

"_YOU!" Max shrieked, in the middle of the night. Fang and Nudge awoke with a start._

"_Wha- where's the fire?" Fang mumbled._

"_Not you, him!" Max cried, clearly talking about the newest member of our 'family'. _

"_What about him?" I asked, sleepily._

"_He… he… he has something SERIOUSLY wrong with his digestive system." Max seemed to have trouble finding words to describe it. "Can't you smell it?"_

_Now that she mentioned it, we could._

"_Eugh!" the four-year-old Nudge cried. I'm not gonna lie- it STUNK like anything in there._

"_He's very gassy, isn't he?" Fang commented calmly. However, his voice sounded weird; I could tell he was holding his nose._

"_He's like… a gas man." I chuckled. "Maybe we should call him that."_

"_Gasman?" Fang asked, sniggering. "Well, we do need to call him something… and anyway, I think that would annoy Max." _

"_Let's do it then!" I said wickedly. _

_Max groaned. _

**TBC**

**A/N: This is all written already, I'm just slowly putting it on here. It's on the MR forum as well.**


	5. Angel

"Angel came to us a short while later," I said, taking it upon myself to continue the tale.

"Only, she wasn't called Angel back then," Fang cut in. "Her name was Betsy."

Angel looked pouty. "Fang, I wasn't really called Betsy, was I? I don't like that name. I don't like it at all. "

Iggy cracked up. "Ange, he just came up with the most random name he could, like, two seconds ago. We actually knew that we wanted to name you Angel… almost from the start!"

Glaring at Fang for being so doggone bizarre, I coughed to get the flock's attention. "Guys- the story…"

_Yup. The Gasman was right. The little blond girl in front of us DID look like him. _

"_I told, you, she's my sister!" Gazzy cried. "That's what Jeb told me!" Gazzy's sister opened one blue eye. She blinked._

_Gazzy's sister. What a nice name! Note the sarcasm there. _

_Iggy seemed to be thinking along the same lines I was. "What are we gonna call **her?** I mean, we've thought up enough crazy names to last us a lifetime. We can't just call her The-Only-Blood-Relative-Of-One-Of-Us-AKA-Gazzy's-Sister… can we?"_

_I shook my head. "Nope."_

_Gazzy was still staring at his sister with a kind of silent reverence. "I can't believe I actually have a sister. It's like… I've been given an angel."_

"_You deserve it, kiddo." I said, ruffling his hair, just the way he hates it._

"_Hey!" Gazzy protested. "You're only six years older than me. You can't call me kiddo!" The two-year-old was getting a good pout on._

_I heard Fang mutter something that sounded like I was acting older than I was. I just rolled my eyes and looked at… well, Gazzy's sister._

_Quite bizarrely, Nudge came up with a name. "Angel!" We all stared at her uncomprehendingly. "Gazzy said she was an angel. She looks like one. And have you seen her wings? They're pure white! She IS an Angel!"_

_As if already knowing her new name, Angel rubbed her eyes and smiled a toothless grin up at us- the image of childhood innocence. "That's a great name!" Gazzy said, enthusiastically. We all sat there silently in our crates, just happy to be together. _

**TBC…**

All that's left is a really short ending piece. This isn't the end!


	6. Conclusion

Everyone else was asleep, except for Iggy and I- I was on watch. "Hey Ig," I breathed, not wanting to wake the others. "Thanks."

Iggy looked confused. "For what?"

"For that memory… bringing it up, I mean. It must have been pretty tough to talk about the Griffiths," Iggy shrugged as I continued. "But it was a good thing to do. With all the stress in our lives, it was nice to relax and reminisce for once."

"Yeah, well, we all need to have fun sometime in our lives," Iggy looked kind of uncomfortable.

"I enjoyed that. I had forgotten about you blowing up the computer." We laughed softly, but then my tone became serious once more. "I haven't had this good a time in many nights. It was nice."

Iggy lay down and said nothing, leaving me to contentedly listen to the sounds of the tranquil night.

**END**

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed this, I really appreciate it! I might write another MR fic, maybe a Fax one, but I don't know. I also might come up with a Les Mis fic I put on hold for a while… whatever you guys think! Thanks again!**


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